Orange Moon Friday, February 3, 2023 "No Regrets?"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

    

              "No Regrets?" 

        

    I recently heard a well known entertainer say, "I have no regrets at all.  Where I am in life has resulted from everything that has happened to me.  And I love where I am in life."  The case could easily be made about the gentleman that in many ways, he has served as a damaging and even destructive influence on others, particularly young people.  However, he maintained, "No regrets."

   This raises the question, "Should born again believers, whose sins have been forgiven by the grace of God, have regrets?"  We should, although our proper sorrow for the sins of the past should not be paralyzing.  "I will be sorry for my sin" stated the Psalmist, who also affirmed, "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered" (Psalm 38:18; 32:1).  Certainly, our Heavenly Father would not have us dwell on past failures for which the Lord Jesus Christ died in order to provide pardon.  "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us" (Psalm 103:13).  We do Him, others, and ourselves no favors by allowing regret to thwart our peace in Christ, and our spiritual enemies may even tempt us to use past wanderings as an excuse to detour us from present paths of faithfulness.

    The truth remains, however, that a proper awareness of how our sins have affected the glory of God, our lives, and the lives of others should occupy a place in our hearts and minds.  Most importantly, the Lord Jesus suffered and died in order to make possible our salvation.  While we rejoice in such a gift, we never forget the price required to provide it, namely, Christ bore our sins because we committed them.  Thus, while we rightly rejoice in the freely given grace of His salvation, we maintain an abiding sense of contrition that could be termed "regret."  Moreover, we also remember the people hurt by our failures, asking our Father to mercifully redeem and repair damage we may have done in the hearts and lives of others.  "For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you" wrote the Apostle Paul to Jews who served as darkness rather than light to others (Romans 2:24).

    We should greatly rejoice in freely given forgiveness, cleansing, and newness in Christ, allowing no regret to hinder our joy in Him.  However, we do realize the seriousness of past wanderings, and their effects.  In this sense, we reserve room for a beneficial "regret" that strengthens rather than weakens our faith and faithfulness to God and others.  Our Lord bears abiding wounds on His hands, feet, and side, bearing witness to both His redeeming love for us, and the reasons such injuries were required (John 20:27).  Both realities have a place in the believer's heart, and both lead us to know both the joy and the seriousness of the life to which He calls us.

"Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin."

(Romans 4:8)

"For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with Him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit."

(Isaiah 57:15)

Weekly Memory Verses

   His greatness is unsearchable.

 (Psalm 145:3).  

   His understanding is infinite. 

(Psalm 147:5)

    

   

  

    

     

6767

   

  

    

     

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Orange Moon Thursday, February 2, 2023 "Faithful and Fateful"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

    

              "Faithful and Fateful" 

        

    The Apostle Paul mentions a man named Tychicus four times in his epistles, affirming him as "a beloved brother, and a faithful minister and fellowservant in the Lord" (Colossians 4:7).  Paul twice references sending him to churches "that that he might comfort your hearts" (Ephesians 6:22; Colossians 4:8).

   His name means "fateful," and most certainly he played a vital role as one who brought the Lord's balm to wounded hearts.  We all rejoice in such brothers and sisters in Christ, faithful ones who become fateful because they know the Lord and His truth well enough to lift up the hurting and the fallen.  "The God of all comfort" calls them to draw near us in the willingness to add their shoulders to the bearing of our burdens (II Corinthians 1:3).

   While some may be especially gifted in such ministry, we all have a a role in serving as our Heavenly Father's messengers of mercy to the tired and hurting.  "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2).  Like Tychicus, we become fateful indeed when thus serving our Lord and His people.  Throughout the history of the church, how many believers have been kept from discouragement, or delivered from it, when God sends a Tychicus to remind, encourage, and challenge weary hearts to "consider Him… lest ye be wearied and faint in your hearts?" (Hebrews 12:3).  Moreover, how many acts of obedience and ministry to others resulted from a brother refreshed by another brother faithful and fateful?  "Ye had compassion of me in my bonds" wrote the author of Hebrews to fellow believers, whose help may have played a role in his opportunity and ability to pen the epistle (Hebrews 10:34).  

   We do well to daily offer ourselves to the Lord for service as "the one who will  lift up his fellow" (Ecclesiastes 4:10).  Such fateful service to God and others will surely prove far more consequential than we will ever know.  Our brother Tychicus shines through the ages on Scriptural pages for the glory of the God of all comfort, who will send us likewise as the faithfulness of consecration leads to the fatefulness of comfort.

"Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do."

(I Thessalonians 5:11)

Weekly Memory Verses

   His greatness is unsearchable.

 (Psalm 145:3).  

   His understanding is infinite. 

(Psalm 147:5)

    

   

  

    

     

6766

   

  

    

     

6720

Orange Moon Wednesday, February 1, 2023 "Put On, Put Off"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

    

              "Put On, Put Off" 

        

    Overcoming temptation involves not merely avoidance of sin, but also application of righteousness.

    

   "Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another… Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers" (Ephesians 4:25; 28-29).

    Believers put away lying by speaking the truth.  Rather than steal, we give.  We fill our mouths with edifying grace in order to empty them of empty and destructive utterance.  We "put on" the "righteousness and true holiness" of our newness of life in Christ in order to "put off" the fleshly ways of who we were before trusting the Lord Jesus (Ephesians 4:22-24).  

   This places temptation in a different light than we often consider.  While we can and sometimes do still succumb to devilish, worldly, and fleshly challenges, being tempted does provide opportunity for a faith and faithfulness that would not otherwise exist.  What of Christ's character, nature, and way can we put on in the midst of devilish, worldly, and fleshly challenges?  His Spirit dwells within us to make such triumph possible.  As He leads and enables, and as we respond in the faith that remembers and affirms, the Lord Jesus shines forth in His people as the Christ who long ago overcame every temptation, and who now lives in us to empower our consistent and growing faithfulness to God.  "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith" (I John 5:4).

   What will the Holy Spirit lead us to "put on" of Christ today in order to "put off" fleshly attitudes, words, and deeds?  Let us expect both the challenge and the opportunity it provides to reveal the triumph of the risen Christ as we apply His righteousness by faith and thereby avoid sin.  

"Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness."

(Colossians 3:12-14)

Weekly Memory Verses

   His greatness is unsearchable.

 (Psalm 145:3).  

   His understanding is infinite. 

(Psalm 147:5)

    

   

  

    

     

6765

   

  

    

     

6720